Senate democrats cancel golf outing amid Yee arrest

Senate leadership canceled a signature Democratic fundraiser scheduled for this weekend – where tickets cost as much as $65,000 – saying the decision was a result of “very recent and extraordinary breaches of the public’s trust by three individuals.”

“In its place, we intend to spend this weekend in our districts having an open and public conversation with our constituents about the work ahead for this Legislature and for this state,” Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Sen. Kevin de León said in a joint statement Tuesday.

The Pro Tem Cup is held annually at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego to raise money for the California Democratic Party. Tickets cost as much as $65,000 for a foursome package and $50,000 for two people, according to a source who has seen this year’s invite. Steinberg said the money raised through the event will not be returned since it would have been raised anyway.

“We just aren’t going to do the event and we are going to take stock in how we do events,” Steinberg said. “We recognize that public perception is important.”

Steinberg said the Senate plans to look at California’s campaign finance system and will make recommendations for reforms in the coming weeks. Senate leaders said they plan to look at when, where and how money is raised by California politicians and how to increase transparency. A public hearing is planned to discuss the current campaign finance system and constitutional limits on reform.

“Because of our campaign system, political fundraising is an occupational necessity, but Senate Democrats have always prided themselves on doing it ethically, appropriately, and in full adherence to every rule and regulation governing public disclosure,” Steinberg and de León said in the statement.

The California Democratic Party does not release the total amount raised by the Pro Tem Cup fundraiser or the cost of attending the exclusive event.

Senate leaders added that they will continue to strengthen the Democratic Party’s majority this election year, despite the cancelled fundraiser.

The announcement came hours after FBI agents returned to Sacramento to search an office used by aides to embattled Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco. Yee was arrested last week and charged with conspiring to traffic in firearms without a license and defrauding citizens of honest services. He has not entered a plea.

Two days after Yee’s arrest, the state Senate voted to suspend him and two other Democratic senators – Ron Calderon of Montebello (Los Angeles County), who was charged with bribery and corruption in an FBI sting last month, and Roderick Wright of Inglewood (Los Angeles County), convicted this year of eight counts of perjury and voter fraud.

De León said said the review is needed, but that the actions of the three suspended senators don’t point to systematic corruption in the state Senate.

“We have to be careful that this doesn’t become emotionally visceral or a Salem witch hunt with pitch forks out there when we are talking about a couple of individuals who may not have done right per the allegations,” de León said.